Bobcats fire coach Dunlap after one season (updates with quotes from team officials)

CHARLOTTE – After telling the media last week he felt he’d learned a lot over the course of his first season as head coach, Mike Dunlap found out Tuesday that it wasn’t enough to keep his job as Charlotte Bobcats head coach.

And now Bobcats owner Michael Jordan will be looking for his fifth head coach since he became the franchise’s top basketball official in June 2006 and later its majority owner in March 2010.

Dunlap was let go after the Bobcats tripled their win total from a league-worst 7-59 record in the 2011-12 season to a 21-61 record for a season that ended last Wednesday.

Charlotte won its last three games (all at home) to avoid finishing with the worst record in the NBA.

Rod Higgins, the Bobcats president of basketball operations, told The Associated Press he and general manager Rich Cho met with players and Dunlap before approaching Jordan about making a change.

But Higgins said player input was only “a part of the process (and) not the only indicator.”

Throughout the season, there appeared to be a disconnect with Dunlap and some veteran players, so much so that veterans like Brendan Haywood, Ben Gordon and Tyrus Thomas appeared to spend many games and/or weeks and months in the proverbial “doghouse.”

However, only once did the players’ dissatisfaction appear to boil over.

In February, during a practice session, Gordon reportedly kept bouncing a basketball while Dunlap was giving instruction.

Cho told The Associated Press incidents like that made it clear a change was in order.

“I just don’t think he was a great fit,” Cho said. “Probably best that we go in a different direction.”

Dunlap, who was unavailable for comment, was an assistant coach at St. John’s for two years before being hired by the Bobcats last June.

Previously, Jordan has hired four head coaches and had another, the franchise’s first head coach (Bernie Bickerstaff) resign to take a front office position with the Bobcats; Bickerstaff is now a Lakers assistant.

Sam Vincent was hired before the 2007-08 season and fired after one year. Larry Brown was hired before the 2008-09 season before being fired early in the 2010-11 season. Paul Silas was reassigned within the organization last spring after 1 1-2 seasons as head coach. And Dunlap was fired after one season.

Now Charlotte finds itself seeking another new coach.

Page 2 of 2 - “In the NBA, you’re not surprised by a lot because so many different things happen: It’s the business,” Higgins said.

With the Bobcats getting another top pick – the NBA draft lottery on May 21 will determine exactly which pick they get – and the potential for the franchise to be up to $21 million under the salary cap, Higgins and Cho are confident in finding a replacement.

“Since the release, our cell phones have been blowing up,” Higgins said. “It lets you know that there is interest in this job, a high level of interest.”